West
Australian History

This
book contains a brief description ofthe 1801 voyage
to
Australiaof the
Investigator under the command of Matthew Flinders,
a short biography of Robert Brown and over 80
beautiful photographs of Western Australian plants.
During a four week stay in Albany and adjacent
places on the south coast of Western Australia,
Brown collected over 600 specimens of local plants,
many of which still have the original name he gave
them. Examples: Fringed lily Thysanotus multiflorus;
Kingia australis,
Bristly cottonhead Conostylis setigera,
Cowslip orchard
Caladenia flava,
Blueberry lily Dianella revoluta, Wedge leaved
dampiera Dampiera linearis, Christmas tree Nutsia floribunda,
Prickly Moses
Acacia pulchella,
Poverty bush
Eremophila alternifolia,
one sided bottle brush Calothamnus quadrifidus,
Scarlet runner
Kennedia prostrata,
Holly leaf Banksia Banksia ilicifolia,
Catkin Grevillea
Grevillea synapheae,
Prickly Hakea
Hakea amplexicaulis,
Pixie Mops
Petrophile linearis,
Sandalwood
Santalum spicatum,
Reed trigger plant Stylidium junceum.
Some images are of plants named after Brown like
Brunonia australis
in recognition of his botanical work on Australian
plants. Brown was still naming Western Australian
plants after the
SwanRiverhad been colonized by the
British; the genus Stirlingia
was named after James Stirling the first Governor of
Western Australia.

SPECIAL
PRICE $10.00 plus P & H

Nyungah
Land - Records of Invasion and Theft of Aboriginal
Land on the Swan River 1829-1850

by Bevan
Carter with Lynda Nutter. Foreword by Robert Bropho

Nyungah Land is
a collection of documents written by the British
Colonists that:

· names
the Aboriginal owners of the land on the Swan River.

· outlines measures taken by the landowners to
persuade the invaders to leave.

· outlines measures taken by the British to stay -
their ‘shock and awe’ policy.

· reveals the disruption and loss caused to the
lives of the original owners.

· reveals moral misgivings of some Colonists at
taking someone else’s land and food.

· reveals early massacres in the Swan Valley.

PRICE
$19.95 plus P & H

James
Stirling and the Birth of the Swan River Colony
-
by Pamela Statham Drew

JamesStirling and
the Birth of the Swan River Colony,
is a small-illustrated volume about the first
Governor of Western Australia. It is a condensed
version of the outstanding 655 page biography by
Pamela Statham Drew, which was launched in 2003. As
the launcher of that book, Governor John Sanderson,
has said, both versions make absorbing reading.
Stirling’s story is an integral part of the struggle
of empire building that characterised the first half
of the 19th
Century,and
his leadership, ambition and courage match those of
many celebrated British heroes of that period.
Without him we might have had a very different
Australia with the Western third speaking a
different language. The beautifully illustrated
short version of his adventures brings to life for a
wider audience the story of how Western Australia
began, and the story of the man who started it all.

PRICE
$30.00 plus P & H

Swan River
Letters Volume 1 - Collected and
edited by Ian Berryman

Swan River Letters
Volume 1 is a significant and original contribution to
the literature on the founding and early history of the
Swan River Colony in Western Australian.

Based on the
editor’s extensive study of British and colonial
newspapers, the book has two parts. The first part is an
essay detailing the reaction in Britain which followed
the receival of the first news from the colony. By an
unfortunate mischance, the first news was not the
official despatches, or letters from colonists, but
consisted of second or third-hand rumours of disaster
that has been passed on by a shopkeeper living on the
remote island of St Helena. As a result, the new colony
suffered a near-fatal setback – emigration from Britain
ceased, and Western Australia acquired a bad name which
lasted for decades afterwards.

The main part of
the book contains annotated transcripts of over one
hundred letters and reports from Swan River colonists
that were published in contemporary newspapers and
pamphlets. These letters, most of them previously
unknown, include a letter from James Stirling himself.
Written during the voyage from Britain to Cape Town, it
gives a unique insight into Stirling’s plans and hopes
for the new colony. Other correspondents include William
Stirling (the Governor’s cousin), Alexander Collie,
Thomas Hester, C.D. Ridley, James Purkis, Alfred Stone
and John and Joseph Hardey. Although most of the letters
are from the middle-class colonists, there are some from
tradesmen and servants, which are among the very few
known letters from working-class colonists.

In the Foreword,
Emeritus Professor R.T. Appleyard describes this book as
‘a goldmine of information on the early years at the
Swan River colony’, which ‘will be an essential
reference for scholars’.